South Lake Watershed Partnership

The ‘South Lake Group’ has taken on many different forms over past years, from the Poultney Mettowee Watershed Partnership, to the South Lake Working Group, to the short-lived Friends of Southern Lake Champlain. The ongoing thread is the continued recognition that South Lake is a dynamic and beautiful part of the larger Lake Champlain watershed. The diversity and beauty spread from the Lower Poultney River, recognized as an Outstanding Resource Waterway, with its populations of rare freshwater muscles, to the beautiful waterfalls in the headwater streams.

The current South Lake Partnership includes the District, Rutland Regional Planning Commission, Vermont DEC‘s South Lake Tactical Basin Planner, a Green Mountain College professor, town administrators, local scientists, foresters, and small business owners. The goal of the group is to work together, across political boundaries, within the South Lake Watershed to promote the area as the Gateway to Lake Champlain, and as such, an important protector of water quality for the lake.

SPOTLIGHT – The South Lake Watershed Partnership

In July, 2015, the South Lake Watershed Partnership, organized by the District and Rutland Regional Planning Commission, was honored to receive a High Meadows Fund grant to promote flood resiliency in the Flower Brook watershed. The District and RRPC have been meeting with the governing bodies of the three towns in the watershed, Danby, Pawlet, and Tinmouth to discuss projects that increase flood resiliency in the Flower Brook watershed and to initiate a model for future planning and emergency management.

COMMUNITY EVENT: August 28Enjoy live music, local food, and family activities 11 – 2 on Edie’s Green in PawletJoin us for field trips and stream walks from 2 – 4 from Edie’s GreenShare Tropical Storm Irene memories, Stories and examples of flood resiliency, and ANR Presentations